Will the PDs serve longer in government than Fine Gael?

[QuizMaster]

I suppose I could do the math myself, but I'm a bit busy.
So, if this government lasts 5 years, the PDs will have how many years' experience in government?

And how many have Fine Gael had, since they were formed by the merger of Cummann na nGael, the blueshirts and the Farmers' Party?

And what, if anything, does it all mean? Probably nothing.

[FutureTaoiseach]

If you exclude the CnG yrs, FG has only served around 18 yrs in govt. We have served 13 - 18 if the govt lasts until 2012. So in 2012 we will equal their tenure in govt and exceed it if we are re-elected.

[The Collective.]

How many TDS have you have in Gov?

[Respvblica]

Essentially, if not by design, the PDs became the primary tool of FF in the post-Lynch era. By the 1980s it became clear the days of FF overall majorities were gone. Not only that but for the first time they were finally faced with an opposition party which was its electoral equal, the FG of Fitzegrald. Socially liberal, economically centre-right, internationalist and committed to integrity and accountability, all things that FF were not, they were the party with the future. Then something quite incredible happened. The FF monolith split itself. The main party remained, but the offshoot became a model of FG, except colder and purer. That daughter party cyphoned off FG support at the critical time when FF was under pressure to forego its dominance. Later the tactic was (indavertantly?) repeated again, this time on a local level with the so-called gene-pool independents. These performed the function of diverteing disenchanted former FFers from voting for FG, LAB or SF.

So historically you can say that the PDs had so many years, but in reality they served no purpose but to ensure the continued dominance of FF and are therefore best forgotten. FF provided the Taoiseach and the real leadership, the rest irrelevant. The result: real 21st century accountable government guiding a 1st class economy and society, was only partially achieved.

Divide and conquer. The PDs were merely a tool in a greater game. Berties era is FF's - soley. The indos are FF. The only non FF componet of the present govt are the greens, Lowry and McGrath. But they are completely new additions.